Captain Blasto is a web series that focuses around Colin Carter, a bored high school student that convinces several adult friends into pulling off a series of fake heists so he can pretend to be a superhero.
Captain Blasto provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Evan's father and grandfather were both abusive drunks, and Evan believes he'll eventually become one towards his own kids.
- The Alcoholic: Evan. Colin first meets him in a bar, and the first thing that he does after the gang commits an actual robbery is to buy beer. Later, he reveals to Colin in a drunken rant that his father was an abusive alcoholic, and his grandfather before him. The end of the series implies that he is finally starting to cut back on his drinking.
- Alliterative Name: Colin Carter, in classic superhero fashion.
- Arc Words: "What did you want to be when you grew up?" Colin repeatedly poses this question to his adult friends.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Right before they allow themselves to be arrested, Colin asks Evan what he wanted to be when he grew up. Evan only responds, "My father."
- Art Shift: The first appearance of "Professor Fandango" is black-and-white with a grainy filter, complete with an opening title card, reminiscent of an old film serial.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Evan wanted to be like his father when he grew up (his father being an abusive alcoholic).
- Bittersweet Ending: The gang ends up being arrested for their crimes and given relatively light sentences. The "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue at the end shows Daryl still being forced to sell his house, implies that Mike was fired from his job, and shows that Evan is still drinking.
- Blatant Burglar: Daryl's first costume consists of a black domino mask and a black-and-white striped shirt. Colin even tells him that he looks like the Hamburglar.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Colin, a high school student in the 2000's, is obsessed with Captain Blasto, a comic book hero stated to be from the 1930's.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Defied by Evan; while he recognizes that both his father and grandfather were abusive parents and alcoholics, he makes no effort to break the cycle because he believes it is inevitable that he will become an abusive father.
- The Caper: The series involves a string of these, with the twist that they don't actually steal anything until Evan gets involved.
- Captain Ersatz: Captain Blasto (the comic character, not Colin) appears to be one of Superman.
- Clark Kenting: Deconstructed; Colin only wears a pair of goggles in his Captain Blasto costume and Nerd Glasses in his civilian identity as a journalist writing stories about Captain Blasto for the local newspaper. Detective Schuster is able to easily connect the dots between Captain Blasto and the journalist that matches the same physical description.
- Cool Old Guy: Sam the getaway driver. He's the only member of Colin's group who remains unaware of the others' criminal activity, and like Colin, he was a fan of Captain Blasto as a kid.
- Deliberate Monochrome: Used in the final two episodes during the church robbery and Colin's imprisonment in the warehouse.
- Engineered Heroics: Colin's friends stage a string of robberies so he can pretend to be a superhero.
- Escapism: The motivation for the group; despite most of them being married men with children of their own, they agree to help a high school student they barely know to stage a string of robberies so he can pretend to be a superhero because they all find their lives too mundane and are looking for a little excitement.
- Establishing Character Moment: Evan pulls a knife on a teenager who isn't taking the staged robbery seriously. While Evan goes along with the rest of the plan with no issues and has no actual intention of actually stealing from anyone, it's the first indication that he is clearly not a nice guy.
- Evil Is Petty: Invoked by Evan when he tries to rob a knitting club and realizes that none of the women are taking the whole thing seriously, so he starts tearing apart a blanket one of them is knitting to show them how serious he is.
- Everyone Has Standards: All of Colin's accomplices (save for Sam) willingly steal from other people behind Colin's back, but Daryl is clearly uncomfortable with robbing a church congregation despite being the person most in need of money. Later, when Evan smashes a Captain Blasto figurine over Colin's head during an argument, Daryl tries to attack Evan in a blind rage, prompting Mike, Eddie, and Tom to restrain him, although they are all visibly outraged at Evan.
- Gone Horribly Right: After several staged robberies, Colin feels that the group has to up the ante and introduce a villain to the mix. At Eddie's suggestion, Colin recruits Evan Archer, who ends up being a major Jerkass and soon has the group committing actual theft behind Colin's back.
- Heroic Willpower: After being tied up in the final episode, Colin is able to invoke this to escape and later overpower Evan.
- In Medias Res: The first episode begins with Colin tied up in the warehouse before cutting back to the beginning.
- Irony: Tom admits to wanting to be a police officer when he grew up, right before he takes part in a fake robbery. It becomes even more ironic when the robberies become real.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While he's likely motivated as much by selfishness as anything, Evan has a point that they can't just return the money that Daryl accidentally brought with them as the group flees the theater.
- Karma Houdini: Considering the group committed several robberies in broad daylight, their sentence of one week in county jail and 300 hours of community service seems hilariously light.
- Kick the Dog: During the group's final robbery of a church, Evan starts by mocking how small the congregation is (perhaps twenty people in a church designed to hold several hundred).
- Knight of Cerebus: Evan. Before Colin recruits him, the group's antics are relatively harmless and actually humourous to watch. Under Evan's influence, the guys start committing actual crimes behind Colin's back, and the jokes become much more scarce.
- Lab Coat Of Science And Medicine: Evan wears one as part of his "Professor Fandango" costume.
- May December Friendship: Colin, a high school student, is close friends with the school janitor, who is married with two kids, at the start of the series. All of the other guys he recruits are similarly older, particularly Sam and Mike, who both are old enough to be Colin's father.
- Nerd Glasses: When he takes a job as a journalist, Colin starts wearing a pair of thick glasses to emulated his favorite superhero's secret identity, despite not needing glasses.
- No More for Me: Evan's last appearance in the series has the bartender place a fresh beer in front of him, only for Evan to pay for it and walk out of the bar without touching it.
- Parental Neglect: Heavily implied for Colin; the first episode has him returning home from school to find a note from his mom on a styrofoam container containing three mozzarella sticks.
- Shout-Out: Episode 10 is titled "The Brave and the Bold".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Colin wears a Paper-Thin Disguise as Captain Blasto and gets a job as a journalist so he can write articles about himself. Detective Joe Schuster sees right through the ruse when he finds out that the guy writing extremely detailed and accurate accounts of Captain Blasto's exploits for a small, local newspaper perfectly matches the physical description of Captain Blasto.
- After finding out that the others are committing actual robberies, Colin goes off-script and starts attacking them for real. Unfortunately for Colin, he is a scrawny teenager trying to fight several grown men at once (at least one of which is significantly larger than himself) and he is quickly subdued.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Daryl, Eddie, Mike, and Tom are all generally good guys at the start of the series, but all of them are perfectly willing to exploit Colin's trust to commit actual robberies after Evan joins the team.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Eddie is the one to suggest recruiting Evan Archer to serve as Captain Blasto's nemesis.
- During the confusion of fleeing the movie theater, Daryl forgets to leave behind the bag of cash they'd "stolen" from the theater patrons. Evan then convinces the others that they can't just return the money and instead use it to buy booze, prompting them to begin committing actual robbery.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Eddie is the only member of the team who isn't featured in the ending montage.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The final episode features two: the first by Tom when he learns that the other guys stole from a church and have Colin tied up in a warehouse, and the second by Colin when he calls them out for turning their harmless antics into actual criminal behavior.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The series ends on one:
- Daryl is forced to sell his house, but is still seen enjoying time with his family.
- Mike is fired from (or quits) his job as a computer technician and begins pursuing his dream of being an architect.
- Sam receives a package from Colin containing an old Captain Blasto comic and a note telling him never to grow up (a Call-Back to an earlier conversation about Sam owning a copy of Captain Blasto #1 as a kid and throwing it away when he got older).
- Tom gets a job as a security guard, likely inspired by his childhood ambition of becoming a police officer.
- Evan is sitting in the same bar were Colin met him, though he gets up and leaves his beer untouched, suggesting he's finally deciding to turn his life around.
- As a result of his exploits as Captain Blasto (and his subsequent arrest), Colin is finally noticed by his peers in school, which is all he wanted in the first place.
- Would Hurt a Child: Evan pulls a switchblade on one teenager who refuses to take him seriously and later knocks Colin over the head with a Captain Blasto figurine.
